Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Power lines connecting Iranian
nuclear installations to the electrical grid have been targeted
by saboteurs seeking to destroy its atomic facilities, said the
head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.

Power lines running to Iran’s Fordo uranium-enrichment
facility were blown up on Aug. 17, Fereydoon Abassi-Davani said
today in prepared remarks to the International Atomic Energy
Agency in Vienna. The lines running to Iran’s Natanz complex
were also targeted, he said without providing dates.

“Iran is now able to ward off threats from cyber attacks
and the use of explosives,” Davani told delegates at the IAEA’s
annual general conference. “Nuclear facilities remain intact
under protection from missile attacks and air raids.”

The Fordo facility, built into the side of a mountain,
produces most of the Islamic Republic’s medium-grade enriched
uranium. The Natanz site produces Iran’s low-enriched material.
Cutting power during enrichment can cause centrifuges, the fast-spinning machines that separate uranium isotopes, to fail.

IAEA investigators called a surprise inspection the morning
after the Fordo blast, Davani said. Iran suspects that the
agency is being used by some members to conduct espionage, he
said.

Iran’s Call

“Does this visit have anything to do with the
detonation?” Davani said. “Who, other than the IAEA inspector,
can have access to the complex in such a short time to record
and report failures?”

The IAEA’s board of governors and the United Nations
Security Council have instructed inspectors to write quarterly
reports on Iran’s atomic work since the agency’s investigation
began in 2003.

While Iran “remains committed to the agency and the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,” the IAEA should “change its
approach in regard to Iran,” Davani said. Inspectors are guilty
of sharing information that has led to the assassination of
nuclear scientists and resulted in sabotage, he said.

The IAEA’s indifference to what Davani called “nuclear
terrorism” in Iran “could be dangerous to the specialists of
other countries in the future,” Davani said. Hundreds of
Iranian scientists have volunteered and been recruited to
replace the three nuclear specialists who were murdered, he
said.

Israeli Warning

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense
Minister Ehud Barak have indicated that as Iran proceeds with
its nuclear work and negotiations stall, Israel may launch a
preemptive strike against the Persian Gulf nation’s atomic
sites. Barak has said the Jewish state may need to act before
Iran reaches a “zone of immunity” where its underground
enrichment facilities would be invulnerable to air attacks.

Iran increased the amount of 20 percent-enriched uranium
produced at Fordo to 189.4 kilograms (417.6 pounds) from 145
kilograms in May, the IAEA said on Aug. 30. Its stockpile of
low-enriched uranium at Natanz, purified to less than 5 percent,
grew to 6,876 kilograms from 6,232 kilograms.

About 175 kilograms of 20 percent-enriched uranium, or 630
kilograms of low-enriched uranium, if further purified, could
yield the quantity of weapons-grade uranium needed to produce a
bomb, according to the London-based Verification Research,
Training and Information Center, a non-governmental observer to
the IAEA that’s funded by European governments.

The IAEA’s 155 members are meeting this week in Vienna to
review nuclear safety and security. The U.S. and European
nations repeated criticisms over Iran’s atomic program.

Iranian Evasion

“Iran continues a decade-long pattern of evasion regarding
questions over the nature of its nuclear program, including
those related to possible military dimensions of its nuclear
activities,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said today in
a speech.

Iran, which insists its atomic work is for peaceful
purposes, agreed to discuss its nuclear program with Europe
Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, the EU said today
in a statement. The Persian Gulf nation’s top atomic official,
Saeed Jalili, will meet Ashton tomorrow in Istanbul.